Sunday, November 2, 2014

Georgia's youngest representative runs unopposed, defends agenda

Georgia’s youngest Representative Michael Caldwell, after
both losing a run for State legislature in 2010 and becoming the state of
Georgia’s youngest state representative, runs unopposed in 2014 defending his
views on small government by articulating the rights Americans have that makes
us unique from the rest of the world.

A dual citizen of the United
States and the United
Kingdom, Caldwell
has a wide knowledge on the government’s role in citizens’ rights. He cites the
Constitution’s statement of unalienable rights from our creator as rights
separate from the government and the issue of divinity, that we have these
rights not because they are given, but because we are human beings. Caldwell states that we are among the “Fortunate five
percent” to take part in the Great American experiment of self-government that
makes the United States
stand out from the government of other nations.

”The sole fundamental difference in American government is
that in our founding documents we recognize that our rights are given to us by
our creator” said Caldwell.
“And whatever you believe about divinity couldn’t matter less because what the
difference is that we are the first nation in the history of the world, the
only nation since, to recognize that our rights come from something other than
government.”

Youth and adults that Caldwell
have spoken to have been unable to articulate a strong answer to the question “What
makes America
the greatest nation in the history of the world?” They are rarely taught, Caldwell says, this
principle in governing. When we are taught the difference between America
and every other “free” country we can take pride in the liberty that we
established in the Western world.

“When I travel under my United Kingdom passport, when I
deal with their government, they understand that I have rights solely because
her majesty the Queen of England has granted me her sovereign rights. That’s
the only reason I have rights. Any time she decides I don’t have rights, she is
the sovereign. I no longer have rights.” said Caldwell “Under my American passport, I am
the sovereign. I have rights because I’m a human being. The core princle here
is the approach that you have rights that I didn’t give you is a unique
approach.”

Caldwell
has observed that the debate of rights often turns into a discussion of the
separation of church and state, in which he argues is a different subject than
that of unalienable rights. However you believe the rights
originated, there are certain rights core to us as individuals. Aside from the
primary purpose of government to protect these liberties of the people, the
smaller the government the better.

Caldwell weekly hosts a
coffee discussion held with other District representatives at Copper Coin
Coffee in Woodstock, Georgia. Around a small table with slow jazz music
playing and each person in attendance holding a cup or mug, the discussion of
rights shifted to the state of police not being aware of the rights that citizens
have in the instance of police encounters without a warrant. “By no means do I
believe that we are on a frightening police path yet, but we are on an
interesting path if we don’t state precedent” said District 21 representative
Scot Turner “And not just educating police officers, but educating citizenry.
That’s the problem is that police become 007’s. ‘I feared for my safety, so I
shot him. Okay he’s following procedures’ I mean, it keeps happening. We’ve had
one shot dead in CherokeeCounty and the guy in
Lawrenceville that was executed in his own home and nobody’s going to get
punished.” Wisconsin is setting up a system that a third party review panel
under departments of the state will review a police afflicted death along with
other efforts to curve no knock warrants in both the Senate and the House.

Liz Baxter, Council Member Ward 4 in Woodstock, just finished police academy and
has been considering her stance on the issue. “I have bent my views on
different things. For lack of a better term, I guess I’m on the fence right
now.” Baxter said “Several years ago, they had a set up where you go into the
place and either shoot or not shoot. It was an exercise that was all paper, but
I don’t know what it would be like in real life.”

The consensus amongst those in attendance was to focus the
issue around the motives behind the polices actions. Discussing from the police
perspective, SWAT team training to be prepared to kill depending on who they
are dealing with along with the lack of research on both the CherokeeCounty
and Lawrenceville incidents. Caldwell
argued from the perspective of the officer rather than the fourth amendment
posing the question if it was justifiable to put the officers in danger.

Caldwell
affirms, however, that the idea of rights endowed to us as human beings are not
a product of the government but must be protected by the people and the
government at all costs. “There is a frightening lack of understand about
American exceptionalism, rights, and history in this generation” said Caldwell “When our
citizens understand these principles, they are prepared to safeguard them for
themselves as well as for future generations.”

The idea of unalienable rights is not only integral to Caldwell’s beliefs but
his whole philosophy on government. Caldwell’s
first bid for office was in 2010 at the age of 21 which despite his strong beliefs,
it was not likely that he would attain much of the vote. “At the beginning of
my first bid for a seat in our State Legislature in 2010, I sat with an
influential State senator. We spoke for nearly an hour and at the end, he told
me that although he appreciated my ideas and beliefs, that at my age if I took
10% of the vote, I would change the way he viewed Georgia politics.” said Caldwell “I decided that instead of bowing out, and if we weren’t likely to take a victory, that I would run a campaign exactly the way I thought a campaign should look. This involved things like self-limiting campaign contributions, prohibiting myself from accepting funding from anyone other than Georgia’s citizens or businesses, setting a new standard for transparency through tools like online fund trackers and legislative trackers, and more. I had no preconception of what a campaign “should look like” Though that felt like my biggest weakness at the time, hind sight has shown me that it was actually my biggest strength.”

Caldwell
took 46% of the votes on Election Day, losing by about 200 votes, an experience
that made an impact on his career as a politician. “Now that I have won and
lost, I have a clear favorite, but I wouldn’t trade my loss in 2010 for
anything. I learned more through that process and experience than I could have
learned in five wins.” Caldwell stated that both
the State of Georgia and the
United States
face a “daunting” number of issues in the future. He informs voters that we
could solve 90% of America’s
problems “if we could just get elected officials to maintain their oaths of
office, to uphold the Constitutions of ‘this State and the United States.’